


The Timeless Children

by AlexNoelFieldingFan



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: And that is really not a brag, Bit of a spoiler there but hey, Canon Rewrite, Canon can f itself, Don't know how old he's meant to be but Ethan is an adult, Episode Fix-It: s12e10 The Timeless Children, Episode: s12e10 The Timeless Children, I am sleep deprived don't judge me, I write better than Chris Chibnall, Parallel Universes, the timeless child
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-14 11:55:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 10,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28795011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexNoelFieldingFan/pseuds/AlexNoelFieldingFan
Summary: Basically I got mad at the Timeless Children and decided to write it, but better. Yes that was a while ago, yes I have sat on this for a while. But this is better than the Timeless child and, as I said in the tags, that is not even a brag.Spoilers in the tags!
Relationships: Metacrisis Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler, Ryan Sinclair/Ethan (Ascension of the Cybermen), The Doctor & The Master (Doctor Who), The Doctor (Doctor Who)/Rose Tyler, The Doctor/The Master (Doctor Who), Thirteenth Doctor/Yasmin Khan
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

“How are you here?”

The Doctor looked tiny, stood next to a giant, shimmering wall behind which her home planet could be seen. She tried not to look at it, the now-familiar vision of a destroyed Gallifrey. A sight seen so many times in so many different ways. She tried to focus on the breeze around her, her friends and allies behind her, her old enemy stretching out his hand towards her.

“Take my hand,” he said. Superficially genial but with a deep viciousness, so inherently of the master. She couldn’t see them, but she could feel the presence of her friends behind her.

“Never.”

The master snarled. It wasn’t surprising, but it was annoying. “Take my hand or I turn them into tiny human dolls right here.” He took the tissue compression eliminator from a pocket in his rather dapper suit.

“How have you connected Gallifrey to the Boundary?” She asked.

The master snarled once more. She wasn’t focussed. “Fine, really want me to show you I’m serious?”

He hovered the compressor over each of the humans in turn. They all quailed under him. “Eenie, meenie, miney-” The old man didn’t quail, he looked him straight in the eyes, unflinching. It annoyed him. “Miney,” the master repeated, unable to hide the anger in his voice. He never quite seemed able to do that.

“Fine,” the Doctor said calmly, but a little too quickly not to give herself away. “I’ll play your game. I’ll be back,” she told the humans.

“She won’t, and it’s not a game.” The master smiled, thinking of their precious doctor never seeing them again. “Good luck, humans!”

The master pulled her backwards through the barrier, through to their home, and the humans were blown back slightly. Ryan ran up to it, but Ethan’s hand on his chest held him back.

“We have to go through there, we have to get to her!” He told Ethan.

“It’s too dangerous,” the young Ethan replied.

“Besides, we have to wait for the others,” the old man, Ko Sharmus, told them.

Little did they know the others were closer than any of them would like, as the cyber mothership crept steadily closer over their heads.

* * *

On board the mothership, one of the humans cowered by a vent, hiding from the bolts of deadly energy shooting from the cybermen that had entered. Bescot, breathing heavily, managed to yank the grate off.

“Over here!”

“Go, go, go!” another voice cried out. Ravio led another group of humans to the vent, dodging lasers as they ran.

“I’ll cover you!” Bescot shouted, grabbing her gun. She hit one of the cybermen easily, but it didn’t cause much damage. Actually, she wasn’t sure it made any difference at all. But if it bought a few more minutes, as Ravio and Graham escaped through the vent behind her, it would be worth it. She felt Yedlarmi at her elbow.

“Come on! Bescot!”

She was ready to stay there, to possibly even sacrifice her life to save them, but he grabbed her and pulled her out the way. In some way, it might have been lucky, as she was directly in line of a laser beam that would have struck her heart. He didn’t quite pull her far enough, though, as she felt a jolt of red-hot pain strike her leg. She was hardly aware of Yedlarmi dragging her through the vent, into the safety of where the cybermen can’t follow.

Their lives had been won but their battle, as Ashad reflected across the ship, had been lost.

“The ship is ours.”

* * *

The Doctor collapsed onto the ground of Gallifrey, that familiar earthy scent that no other planet quite had flooding her nostrils. She heard the Master collapse identically next to her. He got to his feet quickly, and the Doctor saw the master, staring, enamored, at the ruined citadel of Gallifrey. He turned, looking down on the Doctor, and a smug smile spread across his face just as his arms spread out beside him.

“Look on my work, Doctor, and despair.”

A jolt of revultion rose up in the Doctor at his bastardisation of Shelley’s words, but she couldn’t help but follow his instruction. Despair was, certainly, what she felt when she looked over the landscape.

“Remember how we used to run through those streets as children?” The Master smiled, not even viciously now, as he looked over the ruins. The Doctor didn’t know how he could stomach it. “The alleys where we’d hide from Borusa as we skipped class? All gone now. Come on, ask me why I did this.”

What choice did she have? “Why did you do this?”

“I knew you’d ask,” he said with undeserved hatred. “Always have to know everything. Come on.” He suddenly seemed to lighten, and the Doctor felt her stomach drop. “We’re going to take a tour through the citadel, or its ruins at least. Then you’ll see. And, um, I know you’re worried about your friends. Plotting how to get away, I can see it in your eyes. But you can’t help them. So don’t even think about it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this was originally written as a script (for some reason, I can't write scripts I don't know why I wrote it like this) so I'm changing it into prose as I write and that's why it's separated into scenes I can't help that. Also, not much is changing yet (there are changes but you might not notice them because let's be honest, nobody remembers the episode) but there's gonna be big changes later.


	2. Chapter 2

Yaz was first from the vent, grinning, thinking they had escaped unharmed. When she saw the look on Ravio’s face, however, she knew she was wrong. It wasn’t until Yedlarmi left the vent, carrying Bescot, that she realised what was wrong. Sadness mixed with relief; part of her thought they had lost someone.

“What’s wrong with Bescot?” She asked.

“They shot her,” Yedlarmi reminded her. “Got her in the leg.”

Yedlarmi laid her down gently on the floor and Ravio began to get more medical resources than you’d think out of her pockets, namely a small device that she seemed to be reading Bescot’s life signs from.

“Will I be okay?” Bescot asked weakly.

Yaz could see Ravio briefly frown at the device before turning a smile on her patient. “You’ll do fine. If we ever get out of here, that is.”

Yedlarmi grinned broadly, but Bescot didn’t seem to believe her. Yaz was tempted to agree with her. 

“Well,” Graham interjected, “I’ve been thinking about that, and I’ve got an idea. It’s a bit of a mad one - quite dangerous and it might not work - but we’ve got form with plans like that, ain’t we, Yaz?”

“Yeah,” Yaz said, concerned but trusting. “Our speciality. How dangerous?”

“We use their armour so they don’t notice us,” Graham told her, opening one of the many doors in the room to reveal an empty cyberman shell behind it. “That way, we can move around and get off the ship.”

“You want us to disguise ourselves as cybermen?” Yaz asked. It was a good idea, possibly, but the danger of the plan was undeniable.

“Have you ever opened one up?” Yedlarmi asked, the brief happiness surrounding him having dissipated.

“Well, I guess it won’t be pleasant,” Graham relented.

“They’re full of human remains,” Ravio told him darkly.

“Well, I don’t need it spelling out, do I?”

“You can’t fake being a cyberman for any length of time,” Yedlarmi said. 

“We only need to do it for as long as it takes to get out of there,” Yaz told him. She wasn’t so sure of the plan herself, she was more saying this to just support Graham.

“If you do the bodies, I could disable the suit connection into the shared neural network,” Ravio told them.

“It’s insane,” Yedlarmi said, shaking his head.

“Well I didn’t say it was a prefect plan, did I? But it’s the best one we’ve got.”

Yaz looked into the eyes of the Cyberman Graham stood by as he talked. She imagined being on the other side of those eyes, looking out of the cold, dark circles, and shivered.

* * *

Ko Sharmus house was actually a tent, flowing sheets of material propped up by sticks. He led them to what was largely an empty ‘room’, containing a couple of guns and a little ammo.

“This is my weapon store,” he told them.

“This all you got?” Ryan asked. He was pretty sure the Doctor owned more guns than this, and she didn’t even like them.

“Well, it’s quite hard to get deliveries out here, you know. I hoped I’d fought my last battle a long time ago. Still…” He chuckled. “This old general still knows a few tricks.”

“I’m not too sure about weapons,” Ryan said. Whatever he’d thought about her, he could hear her voice in his mind. “Don’t know if that’s what the Doctor would want.”

“Yeah, well, if she wants to stay alive, this is her best bet. Cybermen, you fight them or you die.”

“They don’t have any mercy,” Ethan said quietly.

“You can be a pacifist tomorrow,” Ko Sharmus told Ryan. “Today, you have to survive.”

Ryan took the round device from the man, trying not to think about what it would do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know none of y'all remember Bescot and I only remember her because I wrote this but she deserved better and goddammit, she's getting it.


	3. Chapter 3

“Ah! The citadel, the heart of Gallifrey. Recognise the old place?”

The Master stood triumphantly in the catacombs of the citadel, although the Doctor walked around the chamber, examining the place she hadn’t seen in so long.

“I was thinking I might knock through there, put a wet room there, screening room there. Torture room in the cellar, naturally,” the Master said, caught up in the drama of the piece and barely even noticing his audience. Until he did. “Oh. And see through there? The panopticon. Well, what’s left, which, er… which isn't much. We had some fun there, didn’t we, eh? Graduated. Assassinated presidents.” He giggled slightly. “The best of times! And the worst of them. But I thought here would be a fitting place to end this.”

The Doctor still wasn’t paying all that much attention until she heard chimes jingle.

“Oh, excuse me. Check my notifications.” The Master grinned, and looked at the compressor. He reacted violently to whatever news he received, but the Doctor couldn’t tell what emotion was being expressed until he spoke. “Oh, goodie! The cybermen are here, at the boundary. Better extend the hand of friendship.”

For a moment he extended his hand towards the Doctor, just as he had earlier, but there was no expectance of reciprocation this time. He snapped it back, and the Master spoke into the compressor.

“Breaker 1-2 calling all cybes. Calling all cybes.”

Not too far away, practically, but reality many light years away, a cyberguard approached Ashad.

“Leader, incoming transmission from beyond the Boundary.”

The Master appeared in the bridge of the cyber mothership, just as Ashad appeared in the catacomb. 

“Hello, Cybercarrier! Ooh, you look rough. Or is that a choice? Don’t mean to conversion-shame you.”

“Who are you?” Ashad asked.

“You may call me Master. I want you to think of me as your new best friend. Now, the Boundary between worlds, this… beautiful, anomalous fluke.” He grinned for a moment. “Come through it.”

“Why would we join you?”

“Because I have a planet going spare right here.”

The sense of foreboding in the Doctor’s heart doubled, and she looked at the Master in horror. 

“The planet formerly known as Gallifrey,” the Master continued.

“No. Don’t bring them here. This is between you and me,” she begged, but the Master didn’t listen. He merely brandished the compressor at her.

“Don’t heckle, dear. I can always decide to cut you short.” He lowered the compressor slowly, making sure the threat remained, and turned back to Ashad. “I promise I’ll roll out the red carpet.” He noticed the Doctor’s grimace briefly. “It’s red because it’s drenched in their blood. Anyway, patterns. Come right to the hearts. Do what so many of your predecessors fantasised about… land your ship in the ruins of Gallifrey! On the way through, you should send a death squadron. Do you call it a death squadron? A deletion squad. No… a recruitment patrol, a human juicing party, to eliminate the three humans left alive on that planet. They’re weak, it shouldn’t take much. See you in a bit.”

Ashad watched the image of the Master dissolve into the air. “Send three execution units to the surface. And set course for Gallifrey.”

* * *

Ko Sharmus stood in his tent, watching two cyber squadrons appear on a hillside. 

“Here they come,” he spoke into his comms. “Gird your loins, gentlemen.”

“Er… I don’t… I don’t know how to do that,” Ryan said, from the other side of the valley.

“Me neither,” Ethan agreed, not that far from Ryan.

Two more squadrons teleported down from the ship, something that none of the humans on the planet below knew Ravio watched happen.

“As my first commanding officer used to say,” Ko Sharmus spoke into the comms, “Be brave. Be swift. But most of all, be lucky.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm fully aware, as said earlier, that you probably don't remember these people. Honestly that's pretty chill don't worry about it, there will be people you recognise soon (?)


	4. Chapter 4

Yaz sat next to Graham, trying to ignore Ravio’s drilling and the sounds of Yedlarmi tending to an increasingly ill Bescot.

“All right?” she asked.

“Yeah, yeah. You?”

“Yeah.”

There was a pause, and Yaz could see the turmoil in Graham’s eyes.

“Listen, Yaz, um… if we don’t get out of this…”

“We will get out of this,” she assured him.

“Yeah, well… I know, but I’m just saying, if we don’t… I want you to know I… I think you’re such an impressive young woman. Never thrown by anything. Always fighting.”

Yaz wasn’t quite sure what to say. “Thanks.”

“You said to the doc that you thought she was the best person you’d ever met. You know what Yaz? I think you are. You ain’t got a time machine, or a sonic… but you’re never afraid. And you’re never beaten. I’m going to sound like a… like a proper old man, but you’re doing your family proud, Yaz, you really are. In fact, you’re doing the whole human race proud.”

Something in that really reached Yaz, and she felt tears well up in her eyes. “Thanks, Graham, that’s really… that’s actually the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me. But when I said that I didn’t quite mean… that.”

“Yeah I know, I know, I’m not completely out of touch, I got eyes, don’t I? But I stand by it.”

“Well I guess, I mean you’re pretty amazing yourself. Look, I know you’ve been through a lot, what with - but you’ve done some of the most amazing things. Graham, you’ve saved whole planets. I’ve never done that.”

“All right, all right, it ain’t a competition.”

They laughed together, a little. Like they weren’t in the depths of an ancient war.

“It’s true though. I wish I could be half as amazing as you.”

She looked at him briefly with something approaching awe, for a moment she really did believe her words. Until Ravio approached her.

“It’s ready,” she said.

“Oh, okay,” Graham replied.

* * *

A cyberguard approached Ashad.

“Leader, unit malfunction in deep storage vault Micron-Alpha.”

“Show surveillance,” Ashad commanded, but the screen only came up with static.

“Surveillance unavailable, leader.”

“The humans,” Ashad realised.

“Shall I activate a unit?”

“No, they are mine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't even remember if I'd made this gay but I sure am glad to discover I did.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of an emotional scene at the end of this chapter (if I've written it well) just a warning.

The Doctor paced under the gentle orange glow characteristic of Gallifrey. “Why would you give Gallifrey to the cybermen?”

“You’re about to have much bigger things to think about. I told you before that everything you knew was a lie. Well, now you get to face the truth, with me at your side.”

“Do you really think I’m going to believe anything that comes out of your mouth?”

“Do you remember this place, Doctor? Next to the Panopticon, the Chamber of the Matrix, the Repository of all Time Lord knowledge, a data bank of every Time Lord consciousness, living and dead. Every experience and every memory. The lived history of our race. I… I destroyed a lot of things, but not this… trove of secrets. This is what started it all. I was just playing, hacking the system. I got lost in there. And then I found everything. Ah! Truth and reconciliation time, doctor. Well, maybe not reconciliation… but time you saw the truth for yourself.”

“What truth?”

The Master turned around suddenly, brandishing the compressor at her. She was encased immediately in some kind of forcefield. She struggled, her very self being invaded by a vague level of pain.

“Paralysis field.”

“Whatever you want with me… fine,” the Doctor gasped through it all. “But save my friends. Don’t let the cybermen take them. If the history between us means anything to you…”

“I do believe you’re appealing to my better nature. And we both know I don’t have one.”

“I think we both know that’s not quite true. That’s never been true.”

He angered at that, at the truth behind it. “I’m not going to help them, and neither are you. I’m sending you deep into the Matrix to understand the truth of Gallifrey, and of the Time Lords. Brace yourself.”

He grinned. Not happily, but he grinned nonetheless.

“This is going to hurt.”

* * *

Graham and Yedlarmi attempted to help Bescot off of the floor, as Ravio and Yaz watched, already encased in the cyber suits.

“No, no, I don’t want to go in. You can’t make me!”

“Bescot, you have to,” Yedlarmi pleaded.

“Yedlarmi’s right, it’s the only way,” Graham agreed.

“I won’t, I won’t, I won’t, I won’t.”

“They’re coming,” Ravio cried, her heart hammering in her chest, silently pleading for them to go faster.

“Hurry up,” Yaz echoed her thoughts, and Yedlarmi stood to face her, looking directly into her eyes even though he couldn’t see them. She was quite glad of that.

“It’s not her fault!” He looked back to her. “She had nightmares every night. About them coming… converting her. Her parents were converted, did you know that?”

“I… I didn’t. I’m sorry,” Yaz said, her own weak words echoing around the helmet back at her, taunting her. “But you have to see, she could get us all killed!”   
“She almost died for us earlier. She will get in that suit,” Yedlarmi assured her, and he went back to help her. 

“Leave me here, please, just leave me.”

“Well, don’t be stupid, you’d die!” Graham said, although he knew she knew that.

“I’m dying anyway. Aren’t I, Ravio?”

They all turn to the second cyberman. They don’t see the tears running down behind the mask. 

“No, she said you’d be OK, she did!” Yedlarmi shouted. “She said you’d be fine, I heard her.”

“She lied, didn’t you Ravio? Lied so I wouldn’t do something stupid like this. Well guess what?”

“Ravio? Ravio, tell her she’ll be OK. Ravio, listen to me, tell her she’ll be OK,” Yedlarmi pleaded to the emotionless cyberman face. 

There was a pause.

“I’m sorry.”

“You… you said she’d be fine,” Yedlarmi said weakly. “She will be fine. You said she would.”

“The… the Cyberman caused severe internal burns. Their lasers… they’re like poison. It’s infecting her. Yedlarmi, I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry? You tell  _ me  _ you’re sorry? Tell her! She’s the one…”

“Yedlarmi,” Bescot interrupted. “Please. Am I really the one she’s hurt with this?”

“I thought we could get her somewhere safe,” Ravio said, begging for understanding. “Maybe even somewhere with medical equipment, maybe we could save her. Maybe we still can.”

Bescot shook her head.

“I’m dead, Ravio. You get into your suits. But I’m not getting in one of those things just to buy me an extra five minutes.”

“Well hang on,” Graham said suddenly. It had seemed rude to interrupt such a personal moment, but it seemed worth it for an idea. “If we get you to the Doc, she could save you!”

Bescot smiled slightly, at Graham’s incurable positivity. “We’ve been fighting those things for decades, I know all about them. I used to study them, think it’d make me less scared. There’s no cure. No hope.”

“Well, you don’t know the Doctor.”

“Please, everyone let me do this myself.”

* * *

Bescot stood alone now in a deserted corridor, supported by a metal stick that clanged with every step. The four other humans remained in the room full of dead cybermen. Although they were alone, they tried not to breathe too loudly, tried not to seem too human.

Ashad entered.

Bescot kept walking.

Ashad approached some of the cybermen, and Yaz, Ravio and Yedlarmi tried not to breathe. At this distance, he would definitely hear them. He moved on, and he approached Graham.

Bescot met a squad of cybermen.

Graham held his breath, unable to think of any other way to stay quiet. But Ashad didn’t move. The silence ticked on, and Graham struggled through the pain. Focussing all his energy on not breathing, he forgot about the rest of his body. His hand moved, slightly, and Ashad saw it. Barely, but he saw it. He stepped back, examining the suit more carefully.

The squad raised their arms.

Ashad stepped closer, and Graham almost knew what was going to happen. In his head he could see it, Ashad taking off his helmet, them being revealed, failure and death…

A scream.

Ashad stepped back, and Graham prayed he was too distracted to hear Yedlarmi’s breathing that he was clearly trying so hard to suppress. The cyberman paused for a moment, but continued, leaving the room.

They all relaxed, and Graham sighed with relief.

“We’ve got to get off this ship.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bescot deserved way better than Chibnall gave her in the original she died like five minutes into the episode and I was very mad. Honestly Bescot rights.


	6. Chapter 6

“Welcome, Doctor. Are you sitting comfortably?”

The Doctor looked around to see the she was sitting in some kind of black void. It stretched out to infinity, further than she could see.

“Good, then I’ll begin.”

The Master appeared in the darkness, in front of her. “Once upon a time… no. Once upon several times, before the Time Lords, before everything we know, there was a planet.”

Suddenly, they were on a planet. A planet that looked familiar. The ground was brown and dusty and there was a woman, standing in front of what looked like a tear in reality. She couldn’t see the woman’s face.

“A little-regarded, sparsely populated planet called Gallifrey. And there was an explorer, a woman called Tecteun. Tecteun was the first of Gallifrey’s indigenous race, the Shobogans, to develop space travel. Dangerous, unsophisticated space travel. She took risks to explore the worlds and galaxies beyond her home. And it was on one of those distant, deserted worlds on the far edge of another galaxy she found something… impossible. A gateway. A boundary into another unknown universe. She sat by that opening for so long, nobody really knows how long, listening to the whispers that came through. She heard of another planet, also called Gallifrey. But this was not a little backwater planet, it was inhabited by people called the Time Lords, who could regenerate and travel in time.”

The world seemed to shift and change around her, and it was slightly harder to see. Someone appeared through the rift, but she couldn’t see who.

“She pulled a time lord through the gateway, again nobody knows how, but this Time Lord wouldn’t play by Tecteun’s rules, and he disappeared into this new universe.”

The man disappeared, but once again someone appeared, a dark figure through the tear.

“Tecteun almost gave up, but another Time Lord came close to the boundary, and again she was pulled through. Tecteun had caught herself a Time Lord.”

* * *

The cyber mothership had broken through the barrier and landed in the citadel, happy to destroy some of it in the process. Well, what difference could they really make, what small dent compared to the colossal damage caused by the Master?

The four humans stepped out, still in their cyber suits, with Graham breathing heavily. 

“Bescot…” Yedlarmi said, looking towards the direction her scream came from. Ravio put her hand on his arm, again having her tears hidden by the metal.

“I know, Yedlarmi, it’s okay.”

“I’m sorry,” Yaz said earnestly. “I- Graham!”

“Well, I can’t get this bloody thing off!” He was struggling with his helmet. Yaz tried to cast an apologetic look to the other two, but that was impossible in the suit, so she just went to help her friend.

“Maybe just-”

She stopped, listening. Footsteps. Heavy, metal footsteps. They all went towards the compartments they were in before, but they didn’t move fast enough. The cybermen stood at the doorway. Ravio raised her arm at them, which Yaz tried to stop but she couldn’t. They could have passed themselves off as real cybermen, but at this point they were doomed.

But then, one of the cybermen lifted its hands to its head, and pulled.

And pulled.

And pulled.

“Hey, I can’t-” a human voice said, turning to the other cyberman. “I can’t-”

“Who are you?” Yaz called out, as the other cyberman tried to help the first one. The first one held up a finger to wait a second. After about a minute, the head came off.

They were looking at a grinning man with brown, spiky hair.

“I’m the Doctor.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mfing plot twist! If you didn't read the tags. On the one hand, I want it to be a surprise but on the other hand, I wanted people to actually read this. I vaguely apologise but I did warn you.  
> Also yes I know it's obvious what's going to happen with the timeless child but hey, it was in the original, you can't say you didn't think it was the Doctor who was the timeless child but that was too obvious and then it happened and you didn't have a reaction stronger than oh.


	7. Chapter 7

A cyberman squadron stood on the desolate planet, a little way away from Ko Sharmus’ shack.

“Boundary forcefield gateway now closed. There is no escape for humans.”

They march towards it, before two of them were taken out by lasers. The rest of them stopped and began to shoot back.

“First trap sprung,” Ko Sharmus celebrated from his tent. “They fell for the old bio-dampener Decoy Human Signal Trick - textbook!”

But before too much celebration could happen, the cybermen took out the two guns that had attacked them.

Ko Sharmus’ face dropped. “Thought they’d last longer than that,” he said, before dodging a few more lasers directed at him and ducking in his tent. The cybermen clearly decided he wasn’t worth it, and continued on marching. 

“All right, Ryan, they’re on the march. You know what to do, we’re relying on you,” Ko Sharmus said into the comms. Ryan watched the cybermen march down a valley, from behind some cover.

“Did I mention I’ve never been the greatest shot?”

“Now!” Ko Sharmus shouted suddenly, and Ryan threw his small, round device. It landed in the center of the group of cybermen and exploded, leaving burnt grass and wreckage behind.

“Woah! I did it! In the hoop! Swish!”

“Great shot,” Ko Sharmus congratulated him.

“You come for humans, you come for me, Ryan Sinclair. We defeated the Cybermen! Well me, technically, it’s me.”

He wasn’t aware of another, much larger squadron coming towards him, until he turned suddenly.

“There are always more,” Ko Sharmus told him. “Get inside now. Now!”

Ryan ran until he reached the shack, lasers exploding around him. He was almost there, until another cyberman appeared before him. Its arm was raised, this was it, this was the end…

The end for someone, at least.

The cyberman exploded, revealing a man behind him, holding the biggest gun Ryan had ever seen. He grabbed Ryan and pulled him inside the shack.

“Come on, quick,” Jack Harkness told him.

Ryan caught his breath inside, frowning at the man who had somehow saved him. He was grinning at Ryan. “Hey kid, how have you been?”

* * *

“Ah! Ah, come in. Come in!”

The Master invited Ashad into the Chamber of the Matrix, but Ashad remained uncertainly in the doorway. The Master saw his eyes stray to the Doctor, still clearly in pain in the center of the room. “No, don’t… don’t worry about her. She’s fully under my control.”

Ashad began to walk down the stairs.

“Congratulations. You have managed something no other Cyberman has ever achieved. Maybe - maybe - even dreamed of! Gallifrey is yours. Offered as a gift from an admiring Master. I know our races have been enemies. I lived through the Great Cyber War. I saw the atrocities perpetrated on your race. I want to help put that right.”

“Why?”

“I fear we have a common interest.”

“The new Cyber-Army shall have one goal - the destruction of all organic life.”

“Ah! So that’s your thinking. But how are you going to manage that?”

“The Death Particle. One particle, when activated, capable of destroying all organic life.”

The chest compartment of Ashad opened, revealing a small pink spark.

“Very nice! Ooh! Did you make that?” The master asked enthusiastically.

“The Cyberium created it. Through me.”

“So you’re the host… for all cyber knowledge and strategy. Oh. Interesting. Now, I hate to point out the flaw in your plan - Cybermen are part organic, but you more than most.”

“My new Cyber Warriors are purged of organic components. We shall rise towards full automation, driven by the intelligence of the Cyberium. And when that work is done… I shall join my warriors and make the final ascension to full mechanisation!”

The master frowned. “Oh, you mean robots. You’ll be robots.”

“We shall be dominant,” Ashad said proudly.

“But robots. Oof. I’m a bit disappointed. I see how you got there - an AI wanting to create more things in its own image - but it lacks vision. Right, what if we, um, workshop this? You know, kick it around a bit? I have notes.”

“You question the strategy of the Cyberium?”

“I do. I mean it’s good, but it’s not great. There’s loads of robots. Throw a stick in this universe you’ll hit a robot. I used to do that. Any idiot can make themselves into a robot. It’s not special.” Ashad marched forward angrily and grabbed the Master’s throat, but he smiled. “But if you want to be the dominant force in the universe… I can facilitate that.”

Ashad waited for a moment, before releasing him. “Explain.”

“How fast are the conversion processes on your ship?” The Master asked.

“They have been restored to optimal efficiency.”

“Good. Good, good. Good. Good! ‘Cause I burned the Citadel, but if I have one weakness, it’s that I am… a bit of a hoarder. Let me show you.”

The Doctor stirred slightly, and the Master reacted like some force attacked him. He smiled reassuringly at Ashad.

“She’s waking up in that Matrix. But don’t worry, my consciousness can deal with her. I’m that good - I can be in two places at once.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a) I legit forgot I put Jack in this.  
> b) Can you tell I miss those huge stupid Russel T Davies guns lets bring those back.  
> c) I often forget which dialogue I wrote and which I didn't but to be honest you can tell can't you.


	8. Chapter 8

The Doctor and the Master stood in the void, and they could see a small shack. It was strange, it was like it was in the distance, but it surrounded them. The same woman that was by the rift stood there, with her subject on a slab, in a room filled with complicated machines made of primitive materials like wood.

“On that planet,” the Master told her, “Tecteun experimented, for years. Everything she tried had no effect. She grew older, and her desire to understand became an obsession. She worked tirelessly, endlessly, furiously. She had to crack this code to understand regeneration. And finally… she did. She managed to extract the part of this woman’s DNA that gave her this miraculous ability.”

The woman on the slab disappeared.

“She then wiped the woman’s memory and sent her to a random place in space and time.”

The landscape shifted around them, and suddenly the Doctor recognised it; that burnt orange sky, that red grass. 

“She returned to Gallifrey, and found an abandoned child. Tecteun took in this child, loved it, cared for it, and spliced its DNA with that of the mysterious woman. Through every regeneration, she watched and observed the child, hoping to find some of its secrets for herself. At last, there was no alternative. She took the ultimate risk, tested the theory on herself. Put her own life on the line.”

Tecteun regenerated before them into a man, and Gallifrey changed around them.

“Spliced into herself the genetic ability to regenerate. I didn’t know any of this. Did you know any of this? Nearly there. The planet of Gallifrey evolved. Shobogans grew in knowledge and ability. They built themselves the Citadel. They discovered the ability to travel through time as well as space. With Tecteun, they became a self-selected ruling elite. And Tecteun proposed that he gene-spliced the ability to regenerate into future generations of Citadel-dwellers. It would become the genetic inheritance of them and their descendants. But he would restrict the regenerative process to a maximum of twelve times. The timeless child, the abandoned orphan, became the base genetic code for all Gallifreyans within the Citadel. The civilisation which renamed themselves - with characteristic pomposity - Time Lords. The foundling had become the founder.”

The image of Gallifrey dissolved around them, plunging them back into the void. 

“The rest, as they say, is history.”

“What happened to the child?” the Doctor asked, despite himself. The Master laughed.

“What? What’s so funny? What happened to the child?”

“Oh, Doctor, really? Haven’t you worked this out yet? The child is you. You are the timeless child.”

“No. No, I’m not. I can’t be.”

* * *

“Come on, come on! Hurry, hurry!”

Ethan, Ryan and Jack ran into Ko Sharmus’ shack, listening to a rumbling above them. Ethan and Ko Sharmus turned to Jack.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?” Ko Sharmus asked, handling a gun uncertainly. “I warn you, we’re armed!”

Jack held up his arms, unconcerned. 

“Captain Jack Harkness, nice to meet you.”

“He’s OK, he’s a friend,” Ryan assured them. Ko Sharmus lowered the gun as Jack lowered his arms, but Ethan didn’t relax.

“How did you get here?” he asked.

Jack rolled up his sleeve slightly, showing a small, brown watch. “Vortex manipulator. Time travel, to put it another way. It can get me anywhere.”

“So you’re _not_ with the Cybermen?” Ko Sharmus asked.

“No!” Ryan told him, before reflecting. How much did he really know about Jack? “You’re not, are you?”

“Of course not! I’m here to help you! So I traced the Doctor’s signal here, but then it went sort of… wibbly. I’m guessing she went through the big portal thing?”

“The boundary,” Ko Sharmus corrected him, before Ryan confirmed it.

“So what are we still doing here?”

“Er, getting attacked by Cybermen, what does it look like?” Ryan told him.

“You didn’t follow her?”

“We had to wait for the others,” Ethan said. “Our friends were on a cyber ship, but it went through the boundary. Then the Cybermen attacked”

Jack turned to Ryan. “Who is this?”

“I’m Ethan, and this is Ko Sharmus. And Ravio, Yedlarmi and Bescot are up on the ship.”

“With Graham and Yaz,” Ryan clarified.

“Thanks, Ethan. Humans?”

“Some of the last,” Ko Sharmus told him with sadness in his voice. “Look, enough with the cosy introductions. Captain, can you help us fight the Cybermen?”

Jack cocked his gun. “Nobody better.”

“Good. Come on, weapon store.”

They followed him through the shack to the ‘weapons store’. 

“This place is like a maze,” Ethan said.

“I know, I made it that way. In case of an eventuality like this.”

Jack wafted a cloth separator out of the way. “Hey, you never think of doors?”

“Big, lockable doors,” Ryan fantasized. “Indestructible doors.”

“Dream of them every night! But I had to work with what I have. Now…” He picked up two guns and handed them to Ethan and Ryan.

“Hide well, take what shots you can. Kill them before they kill you. Captain, you a military man?”

“Yes, sir.”

Ryan noticed a slight difference in Jack when he said that. Something… formal.

“Look after them.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“Now, go. Go!”

The three of them ran through the fabric, and behind them lights were appearing behind the cloth. Blue lights.

“Four human life forms detected. Delete. Delete.”

Ethan ran the fastest, through identical corridors flanked by flowing drapes of cloth. He ran until he was sure he was running in circles, that the maze couldn’t be this long. Ran until he ran into two cybermen facing the other way. He was sure they hadn’t seen him, but turning around he encountered another cyberman. They raised their arms to shoot, and Ethan prepared himself for impact. He tried not to think about what he was really preparing himself for. They shot, but-

He had been pulled out the way, and looked up to see Ryan. Two of the cybermen had killed one another leaving one behind, but that was enough. Ryan grabbed his hand and pulled him through the cloth to a more secluded corner and spoke into the comms.

“Two down.”

“Nice one,” Ethan said, and they looked at each other for a moment. Something unsaid hung in the air, until the sound of cyberman footsteps replaced it. They ran off in opposite directions.

Ko Sharmus was hid in a box in his shack, as a cyberman entered the room. He tried to breathe more quietly as the cyberman got closer, praying he didn’t notice him, until he heard a voice.

“Hey,” Jack said, and the cyberman turned around before being shot and exploding. “There’s too many of these,” he said into the comms, before running from the room. Ko Sharmus almost followed him, before a further cyberman entered. Ko Sharmus felt his gun in his hand, listening to the cyberman ripping the lids of boxes. It was only a matter of time…

Light flooded the box. “One human located,” the cyberman said, immediately before being shot in the chest by Ko Sharmus. But it was too late, more cybermen were coming. Having lost his protection, he got out of the box to see one of the cybermen dragging Ethan.

“All humans will be deleted.”

Ryan shot the cyberman as it came round the corner, and hid back behind it again, cocking his gun and waiting with baited breath for another one. And then it came - he could hear movement. He rushed around the corner and nearly shot, until-

“Oh - oh my days.”

“Oh my saints,” Ko Sharmus said, also putting down his gun.

“Where’s Ethan?”

Ko Sharmus looked concerned and almost spoke, until someone spoke over the comms.

“Attention, remaining humans. We have your friend. You have ten seconds to surrender or he will be executed.”

They heard Ethan’s panicked breathing. “Don’t come for me,” he said, before they heard a cry of pain. 

“Ten…”

Ko Sharmus took out a small, battered rectangular device. “He’s two pathways away. This way.”

“Hey!” Ryan shouted. “We’re coming! We surrender!”  
“Stop!” Ko Sharmus added.

“Five… four…”

“I said we surrender!”

“Three…”

“We surrender!”

“Two… one…”

They heard blasters fire as they ran to the corner.

“No!” Ryan cried. He rushed in to see two cybermen fall over, and Jack stood over them, grinning, until six more cybermen entered and Jack turned his gun on them.

“Stop!” A familiar voice rang out. One of the other cybermen took off its helmet.

“Hey, Ryan,” Yaz said.

Ryan relaxed and went over to greet them, while Ethan looked confused. As Ravio waved, Graham once more wrestled with his helmet.

“Er, Yaz, little help.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, I hate Ko Sharmus' name. They should be more considerate in fic writers, give people one word names, it flows better! To be fair, it's kind of my fault, I was the one who made the decision not to call him Sharmus. I have a plan for him but I'm half-tempted just not to do it out of spite.  
> (I will do it)


	9. Chapter 9

The Master and Ashad stood on the cyberman mothership.

“Wow. Wow, wow, wow, wow! Ah! You have got a lot of these! A whole Cybercarrier worth. Perfect. So, what’s your plan now?”

“The Cyberium will process and dictate the strategy.”

“The Cyberium? I’ve heard a lot about that over the millennia. The heart of all your power. The centre of all cyber knowledge. Oh, come on Cybermium, show us some leg. What do you actually look like, hmm?”

“It will not leave me… while I live.”

“Oh. Okay.”

The Master took out his compressor and shot a beam of energy at Ashad, and he collapsed, dead. The cyberium flowed out of him like a living thing and expanded, floating before the Master.

“Well, aren’t you pretty? And fast. You made your exit very swiftly there. Worried, were you?”

He ignored it for a moment, and knelt down next to the dead body. “I thought if I shot it, the Death Particle would activate… and all this would be over. I would’ve been OK with that. I thought it was a nice little gamble, but no. Here we are. All still alive. And one Death Particle still in him, waiting for its moment, for its chamber to be smashed open. Prrrksh!”

He looked up suddenly to the Cyberium.

“Oh, sorry, were you close? Candidly, I think you can do better. I request an alliance. I deserve to be your business partner because I have performed well in all tasks. I ransacked the Matrix of the Time Lords, distilled all the knowledge, all the experiences, all the discoveries into this brain up here. All the Cyber knowledge, all the Time Lord knowledge. Put it together and whaddaya got? Absolute supremacy in the universe. Choose me.”

The Cyberium suddenly flew into the Master’s body. It contorted him like a puppet master, creeping through his veins, infecting his mind.

“Wow! That was quick! Wa-ha-ha! Woah! Woohoo! At least buy me… dinner!”

The Master screamed, not noticing the body of Ashad, still glimmering with some remnant of the cyberium.

* * *

The Doctor lied on the grey grass that felt like nothing, the Master laying on the grass next to her. They were the only colour in this monochrome world.

“This is no time to be sleeping. Is it hurting, Doctor? I hope it’s hurting, because it really hurt me.”

“It’s all lies,” she replied, despite a slight tremble in her voice. “None of this is the truth.”

“Well yes, and no. This is all absolutely true, and yet it is also not.”

“How? I know my life, I know who I am. You know who I am, you were there for my childhood.”

“Yes, this stumped me too. This did happen to you, this child is The Doctor, and yet none of this happened to you. I considered a memory wipe, of course, but some trace would remain, in our culture. Some memory. In the end there was a much simpler explanation.”

The greyness disappeared, replaced by the first scene, with the rift in space and time. Once more they watched it, but it was clearer now. They could see.

“You. You weren’t the Timeless Child, you created the Timeless Child. You were the Time Lord who Tecteun got all that from. That regeneration energy.”

Then they were in Tecteun’s hut, once again, looking at the subject on the slab. It was her, her face contorted in pain under Tecteun’s experiments. The world shifted once more, but the only thing changed was the Doctor was replaced on the slab by a child.

“But the child…” the Doctor asked.

“Got a copy of your regeneration cycle, but she got so much more than Tecteun could have anticipated.”

Images began to flash past them. The child at the academy playing with a friend, looking into the time vortex, and running from it. An argument with Tecteun, and the child, now an adult, grabbed a bag and stormed out. Accompanied by a younger companion, she broke into a museum, stole a TARDIS. Suddenly they were floating in the nothingness of space, watching the TARDIS fly towards a planet the Doctor knew well…

“Some memory remained. I don’t know how, but it happened again. All of it. You happened again. According to the Matrix you’re the same person, because functionally you are.”

“So, she’s from another universe. She’s this universe’s version of me?”

“So all of this. Since I regenerated, it’s all been another universe?”

“Every second. Every person you met. All parallel. All lies.”

“Even you?”

The Master smiled, a cold, cynical smile. He waved his hand, and it was as though the world rewinded, past the Doctor arriving in this universe, back to the first traveler, the first time lord to be dragged through.

It was him.

“I escaped. I don’t know how, I don’t even remember it, but I did escape. So then she found you, instead.”

“Why did you do it? Why did you destroy it all?”

“Don’t you see what they did, Doctor? They stole us, who we are, who you are, and made it into them. Stole our very identity. I just stole it back.”

“What about you? Are you here, somewhere?”

The Master paused. He frowned. “I think it’s time for you to wake up.” He waved his hand again, and the Doctor disappeared, back to the real world, leaving the Master to rewatch the memories he already knew.

The other Doctor and her friend. A kiss between two young men. And then fighting. A young man, an older man, a woman. They look different, but he knows they’re the same. The fighting ends, and they join up in reconciliation.

The Master disappeared too, but the Matrix carried on, replaying these memories to itself. The friend regenerated, into a face the Master would have found familiar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did think about it but I left in the weird sex reference the Master makes which somehow made me more uncomfortable watching it with my parents than watching a full-on sex scene. My reason? Not enough people are reading this so I will punish the few that are. Logik.  
> Just to let you know, I am not watching the episode, this is literally just based off of the script I wrote at the time. Any inaccuracies are because of that and I do not care. Also, in this universe, there was none of that weird Irish flashback because that was dumb.  
> This is a long notes. Wow. You really shouldn't read this.  
> Anyway I actually disagree with what I wrote here but couldn't be arsed to change it so this is what you get. I was going to make it so at first the Master thought she was the child but the Doctor found out the truth but like... fuck it.


	10. Chapter 10

Yaz sat down next to Jack, a little later on, while the others were strategizing. She probably should be there, she knew she should, she just couldn’t keep her mind on the matter.

“Who are they?” she asked.

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t quite know, but… he’s not the Doctor. He’s not  _ my _ Doctor.”

Jack smiled slightly. “You’re the clever one, aren’t you? You can tell. He’s… the Doctor, but also he’s not the Doctor. It really is complicated.”

“Try me.”

Jack raised his eyebrows, impressed. “You might not like what you have to hear.”

“I can handle it.”

Jack shrugged. “The Doctor - your Doctor - she’s not from where you think she’s from.”

“Gallifrey?”

“Yes, and no. She’s not - she’s not from this universe. Nor am I, nor are they. We came from another one.”

“A different one? Somewhere else?”

Jack nodded. “In that universe - a long time ago - she looked like him. And she travelled with her. And then, one day, she got trapped in this universe. She couldn’t get back, spent years trying to. And then, there was a time when the walls of the universe were thin. The void was dying, it’s - it’s not important. But then, she came back to him.”

He sighed slightly.

“I was there. I travelled with both of them, for a time. But he had this other companion - Donna, her name was. And she… did a thing. And that  _ thing  _ made him.” Both of them looked over at the Doctor, focussed on planning. “He’s basically the Doctor, he’s just human. But same memories, same mind, same everything else. Just one heart. And they-” he looked at Yasmin for a moment, before continuing. She had to know, she would know. “They were in love. They always were, really. But nothing could happen, not between a human and a timeless being.” Yaz thought she saw something, some shadow of darkness pass over him, but in a second it was like nothing had ever been there. “But when he was created, the Doctor he… he gave him to her. And he carried on. I don’t know how she got to this universe, but it’s not where she’s from.”

“Right.” There was so much information for Yasmin to process. Another universe, a clone-type thing, in  _ love _ …

“Look, Yaz, from what I can tell, she’s lived about a thousand years since then. A lot can change in a thousand years.”

“I know.”

And she could never -  _ never  _ \- love a human.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look, I'm not no-homo-ing this. Jack and the ninth doctor were totally in love and they had this kind of three-way relationship going with Rose, I'm aware of that. Jack just respects that the doctor and Rose are in a monogamous relationship now and he was actually more attracted to nine. Can you tell I'm slightly sleep deprived?  
> Also I didn't even mention him but I am now crying over Ianto and you know why.


	11. Chapter 11

“I know it’s been a lot but it’s… it’s all over now.”

The Master paced around the Doctor’s paralysis field as she was yanked back into reality. 

“What do you mean?”

“When I said I killed everyone here… I did keep the bodies. Just… just cold enough in case they’d be useful. I thought… I thought maybe some good could come out of all of this. Tecteun isn't the only one who can experiment. I mean, what if… a new race could be created? Huh? Time Lord organics with the ability to regenerate and self-repair in Cyber armour!”

The Doctor gasped, horrified. He had reached beyond limits she could have ever imagined for him. 

“Invincible! A perfect army, right? Right!?”

They began to walk down the stairs. The… things. It was like the Master had taken all the worst bits of the Time Lords, all the bits that both of them had always hated, and stuck them on garishly. The capes, the collars, the pompous Gallifreyan writing. Words of learning and status, words the two of them rebelled against their whole lives, plastered on these metal cases like caricatures of what they had once been. She knew why he had done it, it didn’t mean she had to like it. 

“Oh, come in, my pretties! Yeah! Doosh, doosh, doosh! Line up, attention! Yeah, that’s it. Grr! Well, let’s test it out.” He turned to one of the… things, and gestured to another. “Shoot him.”

It hesitated, something the Doctor noted with interest. She had never seen a cyberman hesitate before.

“Shoot him!”

It did. It shot him. The second cyberman fell to the ground, no pain, just death. The Master grinned.

“Good dog. All dead. Um… wait! Could it be?”

Golden light began to spew from the armour. From every crack, the eye holes, the mouth, the energy of time lords bled. 

“Yes, it could!”

The cyberman stood up, fully recuperated, and returned to its ranks. It was horrible, and the Master yelped with happiness.

“Behold your new Cybermasters, Doctor. All born from you! But led by me! How does that feel? Huh? Now, no time to lose. Don’t move. Oh that’s right, you can’t.”

He laughed at them, at his cybermasters, at his abominations. At their cold, expressionless faces.

“Oh, crack a smile. Can you feel a new era dawning, Doctor?”

The Doctor looked on, horrified, helpless.

And the Master smiled.

“For Gallifrey!”

“For Gallifrey,” his new minions repeated.

“For the Time Lords!”

“For the Time Lords!”

“For the end of the universe itself!”

“For the end of the universe itself!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay that callback was awesome though and did give me a lot of emotions so hell yeah that's staying even though it's dumb as hell and makes no sense.


	12. Chapter 12

“The boundary, it’s real!” Ravio said, staring in awe at the Boundary. She had already been told about it, of course, but it was something different to see it in person. This great mythologised thing, this epic tale before her

“Yeah, and the Doctor’s on the other side,” Ryan reminded her.

“What is that place?” Yaz asked.

“That’s Gallifrey,” the Doctor - the other Doctor - said, his face as stone. “That’s my home planet, and her’s. The Master’s, too. And it’s been destroyed. Again.”

Rose’s hand slipped into his, and he smiled slightly without looking at her. They didn’t notice Yaz watching. 

“So, how do we do this?” Ravio asked.

“The Boundary will absorb us,” Ko Sharmus explained, “but you have to take the step.”

“Step into the unknown. Who fancies going first?” 

But Graham didn’t need to ask, Yaz was already half way through. Perhaps some show of support, of devotion for the Doctor. For  _ her  _ Doctor. Some claim over her. She was half-pulled into the wall and out the other side, stood on the alien grass, and was soon joined by the others.

“This is actually it,” Rose said with awe. “This is Gallifrey.”

“This is where the Doctor’s from,” Yaz said with similar awe, for a moment unaware there was anyone else there. Then she caught Rose’s eye, and some shared experience passed between them.

“We’re never going to find her in this lot,” Graham lamented.

“Yeah, we are,” the other Doctor said, suddenly positive. “‘Cause you’ve got me! Come on, gang!”

Graham mouthed the word ‘gang’ at Yaz, who rolled her eyes at him, while Ryan frowned in confusion. Yaz then turned to the others. “This is going to get even more dangerous from here. You don’t have to come.”

“We owe you. We’re in, right?” Ravio looked at the others, and Ethan glanced at Ryan.

“Right.”

“We’ve come this far,” Yedlarmi agreed.

Ryan turned to Ko Sharmus, who was still staring at Gallifrey with a similar awe, like he’d been waiting his whole life for this. “You coming?”

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

There was a sadness, though, too. He’d cared for the boundary his whole life, Ryan supposed, and on the other side was only ruins.

Ruins they stepped into.

The Doctor opened her eyes, the pain still there, the paralysis field still activated. A face swam in front of her. 

“What are you doing here?” she groaned.

“Got a signal.” The face came into focus and the Doctor was looking into the eyes of… the Doctor. The woman who called herself the Doctor, this universe’s Doctor she assumed. She brandished the psychic paper. “Said someone needed help. Didn’t realise it was me.”

The Doctor shook her head weakly, prevented from doing more by the field.

“I’m not - I’m not you.”

“Really?”

“It’s complicated.”

She didn’t seem that surprised. “I thought it would be. Look, let’s get you out of here.”

“The Master - he put me in here. Showed me… the Matrix.”

“The Master?” She asked, stopping briefly and frowning. She shook her head, and got back to it. “He wouldn’t do that.”

“Not your Master - I don’t think…”

“Close enough to my Master. I’d recognise his handiwork anywhere. Simple enough to deactivate - if you’re not stuck in a Paralysis Field, that is.” The paralysis field suddenly shut off, and the Doctor collapsed with relief into the other Doctor’s arms. “The Matrix, did it explain… this?”

“Yes, but - no time, I’m sorry. We have to stop the Master.”

“I’m not entirely sure what’s going on, but I did get in here. And from what I’ve seen - and what you’ve said - I think I have a solution.”

“Wait, really? What?”

“The Matrix. It’s powerful. All that… stimulus. Well it might just work. I’ve fought the Matrix before, denied its reality, I can do it again!”

“Oh! I think I know what you mean!”

“You’re still connected to it, which means you’re still connected to him. He can beat us in a moment with that. But if you just-”

“Gotcha. Okay, Matrix, get a load of this.”

The Doctor closed her eyes, images of her life flashing before her, around her, enveloping her. They kept going faster until they faded together into whiteness and left her, leaving just the Master’s face behind, until that left too. She opened her eyes, back into the real world.

The first thing she saw was her friends’ faces. Yaz, and Graham, and Ryan. There were some other people she didn’t recognise so well behind them.

“Doctor!” Yaz shouted.

“Yaz,” Graham asked, concerned, as she helped the Doctor up. “Is she alright? Doctor?”

The Doctor smiled at them.

“My fam.”

“So,” Ko Sharmus smiled, “not dead then?”

“Who are they? Are we having a party?”

She looked around, slowly, the world fading in and out of focus. 

“Jack!” She shouted, with less surprise than Jack would have liked. “Glad to see you at last, heard a lot about your last visit.”

They embraced, Jack grinning wildly, until the Doctor saw something over his shoulder. A familiar shape, that blonde hair, bright clothes.

“No…” she breathed. She stumbled slightly, as the woman came into focus. “Rose…”

“Doctor?” Rose replied.

They ran together, in a twisted facsimile of the last time they’d met, and met in a hug, breaking apart when the Doctor saw her old duplicate. 

“He said…” she muttered, “but he never told me it was this one.” She swallowed, and turned back to Rose. “It’s good to see you.”

“And you,” Rose replied.

The Doctor nodded at Rose’s Doctor, who nodded back. “You’re here,” she said. “This is…”

“Pete’s world,” Rose smiled. “Yeah.”

“But, hang on-” The Doctor span round to face her friends. Her fam. Natives of this universe that she only just discovered she wasn’t a native of. “No… zeppelins in the sky, no earpods, no-”

“Doc,” Graham said sympathetically. “England ain’t been like that for years. Ten years, at least.”

She turned around slowly to face Rose again. It was really her, it was really… her… Rose.

“It’s really you.”   
“It’s really me.”

Rose took her Doctor’s hand, something apologetic in both their eyes. The Doctor didn’t mind so much. It wasn’t like she hadn’t thought about Rose many times through the centuries, come to terms with Rose’s life without her. 

Suddenly, she collapsed slightly, clapping a hand to her head, and Yaz caught her.

“Oh, all the memories…” She came back to herself just as suddenly, brushing herself off, but with a serious expression on her face. “The Matrix,” she rambled, “memories blew the Matrix, oh she’s clever, I’m clever, we’re all clever, all of us, however many that is. Right then, off we go - no, something I’m missing.” She squinted, thinking. “The Master’s creating a new race of Cybermen, using Time Lord bodies. An endlessly regenerating army. Have to stop him, fast.”

Varying looks of fear spread over the faces surrounding her. Most were just worried about a new race of cybermen, but some of them - and none more than the other Doctor - had looks of horror considering what could happen when the cybermen gained the powers of the time lords.

“You shouldn’t be here,” the Doctor seemed to suddenly realise, looking up at them. “No humans on Gallifrey.”

“If it helps, we have explosives,” Ryan offered.

“And a plan,” Jack added.

“That Cybership’s parked itself in the middle of your home town,” Graham told her. “It’s ripe for blowing up.”

Ko Sharmus showed her one of the bombs. “We’re going to strategically place bombs around the ship, including some close enough to the core.” He seemed to lament the loss of such a great city but, in reality, it was already lost. “We’re going to blow it up.”

“We’re gonna blow it up!” Ryan repeated, unaware of the tragedy.

The Doctor nodded, absent-mindedly, distracted by the pain. “Yes, good. Do that. But it won’t achieve everything. Race of Cybermasters, can’t let them off this planet, have to be stopped. Your bombs aren’t going to do that. Need more, but there isn't anything more, the Master’s seen to that-”

She stopped. A realisation hit her. “The Master’s seen to everything.”

Yaz looked at the Doctor, wanting to help but not knowing what to do. The Doctor looked bereft, the spark in her gone out and left to contemplate all she has seen in the Matrix. “You alright, Doctor?”

The Doctor suddenly looked up, a smile spread across her previously ashen face. “Oh! That’s what’s been bugging me! That’s the thing it did!”

“The thing what did?” Ethan asked.

“The cyberman! One of the ones the Master made. It hesitated,” she told them. “That’s what it did. But what did it mean?”

“Time lords are strong,” the other Doctor said. Rose’s Doctor. “I don’t even know if the Master understands how strong. It certainly doesn’t look like it.”

“So if he tried to convert the time lords…” This universe’s Doctor - we’ll call her Ruth - realised. “Did he use a human base?”

“He could have. Which would mean…” The Doctor stared at her counterparts, some idea drifting unsaid between them, not understood by anyone else present.

“Which would mean what?” Ryan said finally.

“It would mean he didn’t do it,” Rose’s Doctor told him. “He doesn’t understand.”

“Who?” Graham asked.

“The Master,” Ruth looked over to the Doctor briefly. “Her Master. If he configured his cybermen for human bodies and then just… shoved time lords inside, it won’t work! It can’t work! The minds are fundamentally different.”

“The emotional capacitor couldn’t handle it. I bet they’re breaking down already,” she replied.

“And once they do, they won’t stay loyal much longer.”

“What do you mean?” Yaz asked him. Her Doctor replied.

“With humans, when the emotional capacitor is disabled, it’s too much for their minds to understand. They don’t survive. The time lords, though… they’re stronger. They won’t die but they will… rebel.”

Rose nodded. She understood, she had had years of experience with exactly this kind of thing. 

“So, what do we do?”

“You have those explosives?” They nodded in response to the Doctor. “Good. The other cybermen still need to be disposed of, even a ship full of empty shells on a dead planet is dangerous. Place them around the ship, we need to get rid of all of them. I’ll deal with the rest. Meet in the corridor below the carrier. Go on then!”

Ravio, Yedlarmi, Ethan and Ko Sharmus made to leave. Just as they were at the doorway, no longer being watched, Ethan stopped Ravio.

“Do you understand what’s happening?”

Ko Sharmus interrupted them. “I do. Come on!”

They followed him out, leaving the others alone.

“Now,” the Doctor said. “I need to get a fix on the Master. He’s the command center, we need him.” She closed her eyes. Nobody could see what was happening, it looked like she was thinking. And then they opened again.

“Good. Got him.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha I'm not even sleep deprived I'm actually drunk now and I do apologize.   
> Also it is totally my fault to have three characters called the Doctor it would have worked better if you don't have to specify by name who is speaking.  
> And yes, I think the solution of Chris Chibnall's habit of having way too many characters is to add more characters.


End file.
